Paul A. Jannace: The less Lynch speaks, the more he says

Thursday

Jan 30, 2014 at 6:23 PMJan 30, 2014 at 6:23 PM

By Paul A. JannaceMore Content Now

The less Marshawn Lynch speaks the more attention he seems to be getting.After an entire season snubbing the media, Lynch made a quick exit from Media Day on Tuesday, which ruffled some feathers among the football writers. Then Lynch cut his media sessions short on Wednesday and Thursday, surely drawing the ire of the Super Bowl media.It’s time to embrace Lynch’s lack of quotability.As the media obligations for the players finally wind down, making Lynch happy no doubt, the Seahawks running back gave the quote of the week on Thursday morning.Lynch was asked about his thoughts on offensive line coach Tom Cable, who came to Seattle after a brief stint as head coach in Oakland — the running back’s hometown.“Well, being from Oakland, all I knew about him was that he punched people. That’s my type of person,” said Lynch.Lynch was referring to an alleged 2009 incident in which Cable reportedly punched defensive assistant Randy Hanson and broke his jaw.Lynch has had very few words this week, but he has made them count. While Richard Sherman has become a sudden media darling — funny how things change over two weeks — Lynch has become the media’s whipping boy.What some in the media don’t realize is Lynch is providing some of the best material for print this week.Fullback Michael Robinson has served as an unofficial spokesman for Lynch, answering some questions meant for the former first-round pick of the Buffalo Bills. Lynch even got asked on more than one occasion about the fact he ends many sentences with the word “boss.”For example, when Lynch was asked what “Beast Mode” means to him, he said, “It’s just a lifestyle, boss.”When asked what he thinks of all the media attention related to the Super Bowl, Lynch said, “I really don’t have too much to say, boss.”I am not offended one bit by Lynch’s actions. Whether you believe his story about being “uncomfortable” sitting in front of a group of reporters answering questions or not, he has been a gold mine of newspaper ink without even trying.When gazing over Lynch’s transcripts, the questions he seems to deflect most often are ones about him. He has spoken about Russell Wilson, Sherman, and his teammates but clams up when a question about him is brought up.I witnessed a great deal of Lynch’s press conferences with the Bills and they were rarely enlightening. He simply is not very quotable.When he ran into trouble with the law, those media sessions became few and far between. Now, he is a media recluse.Lynch has temporarily lifted his media embargo — somewhat — and it’s been an oddly fascinating character study.Lynch comes off as a fun-loving kid at heart in an E:60 piece that recently aired on ESPN. A rare intimate glimpse into the runningback’s life that has included its fair share of run-ins with the law, but also his football camp for kids and his charity foundation. Plus, who could forget about that marketing contract with Skittles?The access to players is over until after the Super Bowl. Lynch probably will show up for his postage media session win or lose, but it likely will be as abrupt as his others.The real treat will be if he wins the Super Bowl MVP award and gets all the extra media requirements that come along with that.Paul Jannace is the sports editor of the Wellsville (N.Y.) Daily Reporter, a Gatehouse Media publication. He is covering his 4th Super Bowl and can be reached at pauljannace@wellsvilledaily.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/pjscribe.